


They Linger

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Ghost Drifting, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27203071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: Malcolm invites his friends over to his mother’s for a quiet dinner. How it turned into a ghost hunt, he can’t begin to explain.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo/Jessica Whitly
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27
Collections: Spook Me Ficathon 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not mine, Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver owns it
> 
>  **Notes:** written for the 2020 version of Spook Me for [ this](https://images41.fotki.com/v1402/photos/6/3814576/16181654/a_Simeckova_beautifulbizarre10-vi.jpg) picture by Lenka Simeckova. I’ll be honest, with my Prodigal Son Big Bang eating up all my time, I didn’t have much time for this bit of silliness. I don’t know if Jessica would be this okay with them ghost hunting in her home (probably not) but it worked for this. Sorry to the person on the team whose name got pulled from the hat as the one who’s not that cool with ghosts. (Someone had to do it). It's rough enough dealing with covid in the real world and it would have made this unlikely so they're in a time line it doesn't exist. Also written for the trope bingo prompt of getting together

Chapter One

Malcolm opened the door to JT and Tally who had brought Edrisa and Dani with them. He smiled at their curious expressions. None of his friends had ever been to his mother’s home for any good reasons. It had all been serial killers, kidnappings, and murder of bad people. He hadn’t been sure if they were going to be willing to come but they had agreed quickly when he asked. They had even dressed up in their best dress casual. He’d made a point of telling them suits and dresses were not necessary even if Mother had called this a soiree. 

“I was expecting your maid.” JT laughed.

“She has the night off. Come on in. I’m glad you made it.” He stepped aside and waved them in. Tally lingered in the foyer, taking it all in with eager eyes. Her belly had grown considerably since the last time he’d seen her. “How are you feeling, Tally?”

“Like I’m ready to have this baby out of me right this second.” Tally flashed a feral grin.

“Don’t tell him that. He might panic.” JT slapped Malcolm’s shoulder.

“I took the first aid delivery classes,” he protested. “That said, I am not in any rush to put that to use. I’ll let Edrisa handle that emergency.”

She waved her hands. “You do not want that.”

“I don’t want either of you near my wife in that event.” JT wagged his head, and Dani laughed.

“Why did you ask us here, Bright? I wasn’t quite sure what soiree meant in this context,” Dani said.

“Just drinks, dinner and conversation.” He led them into the house to the formal dining room, bypassing the living room. Even though it had been redone top to bottom after Nicholas’s murder, Malcolm didn’t want to spend any time there. It was all a bit too much for him.

“Truthfully, it’s Mother’s birthday in a few weeks but she’s been…uneasy about them since she hit fifty.” He pressed a finger to his lips. “So, I didn’t want to wait until October to have a party because she would have nixed it. Hell, she might have flown to London just to avoid me and any birthday plans I might have had. Also, by then, Tally wouldn’t have been able to come and I wanted to include her.”

She smiled sweetly at him. “You are a nice man, Malcolm Bright. Just ignore what JT says about you.”

Both men looked her with wide eyes. JT face palmed. “Tally has a strange sense of humor.”

Malcolm rolled his eyes. “You said if I was a state I’d be Florida. That was not a compliment,” he reminded JT.

“I stand by that. Florida is freaking weird.”

“That’s not nice. Malcolm isn’t weird,” Edrisa said. “He and I like a lot of the same things.”

“I don’t think that’s making the point you think it is,” Dani said, and Edrisa pouted.

“I’ve never understood why everyone is so determined to conform,” she replied loftily.

“It’s hard wired into most of us. Independent spirits tackle it from another point of view,” Malcolm said, making Edrisa perk up. “Anyhow, have a seat. We’ll be having dinner soon. On the side board is white wine for the appetizer course. Tally, JT said you prefer plain ice water, which is on the table in the carafes.”

“I see like a battalion of wine bottles, Bright,” JT surveyed the side board and all the glasses and bottles. Malcolm hoped no one remembered that’s where the silverware lived too and the knives that had ended up plunged into Endicott. “Are you expecting more people?”

“Just us. Each bottle only holds about four to five glasses so there’s two of each. White, which is breathing, is for appetizers. I’ll open the red in a moment to let it breathe, too, and then a dessert wine for the obvious course.”

“I thought you said this wasn’t fancy.” Dani wrinkled her nose at him.

“It’s not. I’ll got let Mother and Gil know everyone is here.” Malcolm hurried off, thinking that maybe they had different ideas as to what fancy meant.

Malcolm walked a little heavier than strictly necessary but the plush carpet ate the sounds of his foot falls. He didn’t think that Gil and his mother would be doing anything he didn’t mind seeing, not with guests coming, but he turned into an eleven-year-old boy whenever he thought of them as a couple. Ironically, as an eleven-year-old, all he had wanted was for them to be together. His brain, being the enormous jerk that it was, had already given him a few choice nightmares about their relationship.

He peeked around the corner. They were having cocktails on the couch in the game room. Malcolm scowled. He wanted Gil to help his mother drink less, not her make him drink more. _Says the man who put out three wines for dinner_. He couldn’t help it. He’d been too well trained for dinner parties.

“Everyone’s here.”

“This wouldn’t be a birthday party for me would it?” His mother arched her eyebrows.

“Would I do that?”

“Yes, because you try to be a good son.”

“I love that you quantified that with the word try.” He smirked. Gil wisely kept his smiling mouth shut.

“If you were a good son, you wouldn’t stand me up when you’re my plus one and wouldn’t ignore my calls and texts,” she replied sweetly before draining her cocktail.

“No, Mother, that would make me son of the year. Besides, how can it be a birthday party with Ainsley on an extended vacation in the south of France?” Vacation, hiding out, whatever his mother and sister cared to call it. “And it’s not October yet so it can’t be your birthday.”

“You’re the expert on reading body language, Gil. Do you believe him?” She leaned on Gil’s shoulder, circling a finger over the back of his hand.

“Oh, no, you leave me out of this.”

“Hmmm, it’s a birthday party.”

“Whatever it is, our guests are waiting for us. I think Tally wants a tour of the place later.”

“Of course.” His mother stood. “How is she doing?”

“Threatening to give birth out of spite just to get it over with,” he laughed. “If I was carrying around that much weight inside me, I’m sure I’d feel the same.”

“I started reading up on foods that would kick start labor just to get you out of me,” his mother assured him. “The last few weeks are fairly awful.”

“I can’t imagine. I assured her I’ll forgo any of my FBI training on the subject of baby delivery and allow Edrisa to do the doctoring. The consensus is someone better get Tally to the hospital fast if anything unexpected happens tonight.”

Gil snorted. “I’m sure she’s thrilled to have such supportive friends.”

Malcolm laughed again, and they joined their friends in the dining room. The dinner was everything he hoped it would be, good food, good talk, good friends. It was what came next that Malcolm worried about. He wanted everyone to stay around for a little while. He didn’t like being alone in the house with his mother. He and Gil had been taking turns staying with Jessica who claimed it was utterly unnecessary. Certainly, she had been on her own in this house for many years but after Endicott, something had shifted. It was one thing to have married a killer. It was another to have given birth to one. It didn’t matter that Ainsley had killed Endicott to protect herself and him. It didn’t matter that she had gotten off on justifiable homicide. Malcolm had seen the rage in his sister’s eyes, and it gave him pause. His mother couldn’t process it all, so he didn’t want to leave her alone for long stretches of time.

He started staying with her off and on while Gil was still in the hospital. Ainsley had traded him those duties many nights while she was still in the city but once she’d been cleared and Gil had gotten to come home, she left for a European tour. He had also had his loft overrun while Gil was hospitalized. He’d brought Gil’s cats there and put poor Sunshine here with his mother. He figured she could handle a parakeet better than the cats. What he couldn’t handle were the nights here. Part of him felt like he was a child again and he was afraid. Part of him wondered if this was setting a strange precedence that he’d regret later.

“I hope you all can stay awhile. We can retire to the game room. It’s a bit more comfortable,” he said. He would do anything to keep out of the redone living room. He had enough Endicott nightmares without spending time in there again.

“I’m having fun. I won’t be getting out much soon enough.” Tally rubbed her bulging belly. “I’d like to stay for a while.”

“There you have it. We’ll stay until Tally’s tired or you’re ready to throw us all out,” JT said, giving his wife a hand up.

“And Dani, Edrisa, if you two want to stay longer, we can get you a ride back home so Tally and JT can leave,” Malcolm offered hurried.

“Actually, I drove on my own,” Edrisa said. “I got here just a few seconds before they did. I can always drive Dani too, if she wants.”

“We’ll see,” Dani replied. “Do we need to help with this?” She gestured to the table.

“Just help me get the dishes to the kitchen and into the washer. Tally, why don’t you go with mother to the game room. I’ll make tea for us. Would you like some more water or maybe mint tea, Tally?”

“Water’s fine, thank you, but I miss caffeine. Can I still get a little tour of the home? It’s beautiful.”

“I’ll take you around as soon as I clean up,” he promised.

The others helped Malcolm take away the dishes. The maid might be off but his mother’s cook and her assistants weren’t. They took over the final clean up and promised to bring the tea for them so Malcolm could relax. He escorted them all on a little tour before retiring to the game room. He couldn’t remember the last time his mother’s game room had had so many happy people in it.

He sat on the couch between Dani and Edrisa. Gil and his mother were on one loveseat and the Tarmels on the other. “Thanks everyone for coming, I appreciate it.” 

“You say that like it was a hardship for us,” JT said.

“It’s not…well, we don’t get much company here for the obvious reasons. I’m glad to have some. It’s been a long time.” Malcolm broke off before he could get maudlin. “Sorry. I guess ever since being imprisoned, and everything that came after, I guess I’m a little nervous how people view me.”

“Even us?” Edrisa sat back, stunned.

“Not you, Edrisa.” He managed a soft smile. “Never you. Or anyone on the team but it was rough and it left scars.” Rougher than he could admit to when his friends had arrested him, hadn’t fully believed him but he hoped they had moved on from there. 

“That’s a word for it,” his mother muttered. She had been a little slower to forgive his friends for doing their job, which meant not standing by him. What could she do though? Between him and Gil, these were people she would see often and Gil had led the team the night of Malcolm’s arrest, which had been devastated but he’d forgiven Gil instantly. “Anyhow, that’s the past and I’m glad to have you all here,” she said graciously.

“I’ve been thinking about the past a bit,” Malcolm said. “About some of the things I’ve been missing.”

“Such as?” Dani asked.

“Late summer trips to the lake or the sea side,” he said, picturing it in his mind’s eye. “In Harvard, I did have a few friends, people who either didn’t know or care who my father was. It was all about our work there. I think that might have been the first time I felt like I fit in.”

“Same here,” Edrisa said. “College I mean. I was bullied in school either because I was smart or I was Asian or more usually because I was a smart Asian.” She sighed, fussing with her glasses. “College was different.”

He nodded vigorously. “Exactly. Anyhow, I’ve just been thinking about sitting lake side with a camp fire.”

His mother made a dismissive sound. “You always did go for that sort of thing. I’ve never been one for sitting around a camp fire.”

“Pity,” Gil said. “It could be fun, though I suppose you might be more of sitting on the verandah looking out at the waves at a beach house.”

“I have one of those.”

Malcolm tried to ignore the seductive tone his mother used as she took Gil’s hand.

“Really?” Tally perked up. “Man, I would like to see tha- ow!”

“Kicking again?” JT asked, and she nodded as her shirt jiggled back and forth as her baby took shots at her abdominal wall.

“Someone is very awake it looks like,” his mother said, while he was busy thinking it was good to be a man. He stood in awe of all women went through.

Tally rubbed her belly. “I have a little gymnast in here I’m sure of it.”

“That one was a martial arts expert.” His mother pointed at him. “He broke one of my ribs kicking around inside me.”

“Yikes.” Tally’s eyes widened, and then she spoke directly to her abdomen. “Don’t you get any ideas, little one.”

“It’s worth it, all of it,” his mother said. 

“Just wish the baby were here already.”

“Did any of those foods to induce labor you read up on actually work, Mother?”

She shook her head. “Those there is some research into how the biochemistry of sex…”

Malcolm whipped up a hand. “I’m going to stop you right there. I’m in enough therapy without picturing any of that. You can text that to Tally later.”

Dani rubbed his shoulder. “Maybe we should go back to your camp fire idea. Do you know, I’ve never actually been out in the woods, doing the telling stories by the fire thing?”

“Never?”

“Me either,” JT said.

“Wow, people more citified than me. It was fun. I loved roasting marshmallows.”

“You always set yours on fire.” Gil rolled his eyes. “Jackie and I would try to get you to roast them slowly but you were never patient enough. You’d just jam it straight into the flames.”

“I liked it blackened and gooey in the middle.”

JT shook his head. “You’re a weird dude, you know that right?”

“What? It’s good! Jackie made good s’mores.”

“Just how much sugar did you give my son when he was a kid, Gil?” His mother nudged Gil, grinning.

“Always enough to regret it later.” He laughed ruefully.

“We could tell stories now,” Dani said. “I mean we don’t have an open fire. Plenty of fireplaces in here but it’s too hot for that anyhow.”

“Ghost stories are the best,” Tally said.

“Are you sure you want those? This place has to be haunted,” JT replied.

Malcolm’s mother shot him a look. “My house isn’t haunted.”

“Are you sure? How many Milton generations have lived here?” Malcolm chuckled. “And we were on this land long before this house.”

“I hang out with a ghost hunting team when I get the chance,” Edrisa said, expertly ignoring Dani’s ‘of course you do.’ “I have equipment in the car. We could do a little ghost hunting and come up with our own stories.”

“You actually believe ghosts are real?” His mother asked.

“I don’t discount the possibility. It could be fun. I have enough equipment that we could work in teams.”

“Can Team Tally just sit here and work on this room?” Tally held out her left foot, pointing to her swollen ankles.

“I’ll be on Team Tally,” his mother said. “If she doesn’t mind me having another cocktail in front of her.”

“I’m good with it but god, I miss beer and since alcohol gets into breast milk, it’s still going to be a while on that one.”

“Even some foods change breast milk and can put your baby right off it.”

“Let me guess, your son was picky about food from the get-go,” JT said.

“His father made it worse but yes, Malcolm was never one for eating.”

“I was such a difficult baby, I’m shocked you had a second one.” Malcolm rolled his eyes. 

“You’ll notice I waited a while.” His mother shot him a look. “All right, Edrisa, if it entertains everyone, go ahead. Have a ghost hunt in the house. Try not to stir anything up too much.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts, Mother.”

“I don’t but isn’t that how most horror movies start? With a doubter or someone worried about things getting stirred up.”

“You have a point. Come on, Edrisa, let’s get the equipment.”

When Edrisa said she had equipment, Malcolm was expecting a camera and maybe a recorder. She had those too but much more. She had EMF readers, some kind of laser light that made a grid, a stuffed bear, a spirit box, something she called a rem-pod and an item she coveted, a Mel-meter with EMF, Rem and ATDD. Malcolm was sure he had no idea what any of that meant.

“Okay Team Tally can have the Boo Buddy and the laser grid.” Edrisa put the bear on the fire place mantle. “It’s really simple. You have to interact with the bear to make it talk. It will ask EVP prompt questions. It has a temperature detector in it and that’ll prompt Boo Buddy to talk if it senses a big temperature change. And if there’s a change in the EMF, the electromagnetic field, it’ll talk too. And if there’s any movement….” Edrisa waved a hand in front of the bear and it giggled before saying “That tickles.”

“Not creepy at all,” JT said wide eyed.

“Jessica, where is the nearest exit? Because if that thing talks to me, I’m gone.” Tally laughed.

“There’s a back door down that hall. You run for it. I’m going out that window.” She grinned, pointing to the picture window.

“Can you set up a camera in here, Edrisa? Because I would pay to see that,” Malcolm said.

“Sorry, I only have the one camera,” she replied, turning the laser grid onto the white fireplace which reflected the light. “If anything breaks the light pattern-”

“We run for it,” his mother said.

“You run, I’ll waddle,” Tally added.

“Okay so Team Tally is staking out the game room, which seems the least likely place to find a ghost. For everyone’s sanity, let’s stay out of the basement,” Malcolm said with a shiver. If there were ghosts in his mother’s home, the place his father kept victims, where Watkins had done god knows what, they’d be in that basement or in the formal living room. He trusted his friends to be sensitive enough not to suggest that room.

“Agreed,” Dani said quickly. “Suggestions?”

“Well, some of us could check out down here and the rest of us could go up to the attic. We have a full length one.”

“Dude, have you never watched a horror flick?” JT shot him an incredulous look. “When you have the benefit of numbers _never_ pair off or go it alone. Tally and your mother obviously have never seen a horror flick so they’re already doomed.”

“The virtuous woman always lives to the end, love.” Tally grinned.

“Then Mother is…”

“Finish that sentence and become the next ghost in this house, Malcolm.” His mother’s warning look had the desired effect.

“Okay we can all go together to the attic and start there,” Malcolm said.

“Because nothing bad ever happens in an attic.” Dani wagged her head.

“Gil, are you coming with us or staying here with Team Tally?” JT asked.

“Maybe I should stay.”

“I’ll remind you, the couple making out is _always_ the one who dies first.” Malcolm beamed as Gil favored him with some masterful stink eye. “And yes, JT, I’ve seen horror movies.”

“Go with them, Gil.” His mother flapped a hand at him. “Malcolm gets into too much trouble if he’s unsupervised.”

“You heard your mother.” Gil patted Malcolm’s back.

“Okay, to the attic.” Edrisa bounced on her heels.

Malcolm wondered what he was getting himself into.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“This attic is every bit as creepy as I expected it to be,” JT said, holding a recording device.

Gil had been put in charge of the camera while Malcolm and Edrisa took turns with the Mel-Meter, and they had the spirit box set up nearby. It made an obnoxious noise that Malcolm was sure would give him a headache. Dani kept a wary eye on the rem-pod they had put in the far end of the vast space.

“Do you really just go around asking questions to empty air like they do on the shows?” Dani asked.

Edrisa bobbed her head. “I don’t provoke things but yes. For example, we’d ask the home owner if they knew if anyone died here but given the public records of this house…”

“That’s why I’d like to stay out of the living room and basement. Mother’s being okay with this but that might be a step too far. As for others who died, well as far as I know, no one committed suicide or anything in this attic. Back before this house was built and a lot of this was still farm land, there was a family plot out where the back yard is now,” Malcolm said. “And there were rumors a servant girl fell over the bannister from the former servants’ quarters and died back in the 1880s. I’ve never tried to look it up to see if it really happened.”

“Yep, this place is haunted,” JT said.

“It certainly has the right history. Since you asked Dani, we’d ask things like is there anyone here who wants to talk? What is your name? Things like that.” Edrisa stared at the spirit box but nothing came over it. “Eventually we’ll have JT rewind the recorder and see if we caught anything.”

“Edrisa, if there’s anything on this recorder I’m out of here,” JT said.

“So brave,” Edrisa said, not hiding her grin. “Once we’re done here, we can go out to the yard if you want, Malcolm. Do you know where the plot is?”

“It’s gone. I think they dug them up and reinterred them elsewhere, probably in Queens.” He shrugged.

“You and your mother are nuts for keeping this place,” JT said, wandering over to a pile of boxes. 

“How so?” Malcolm knew how so. He had thought it many times himself.

“Look, it’s ghosts 101.” JT swung a hand toward Edrisa. “I bet Edrisa will agree. If you find that your house was built upon or near a cemetery, had previous inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible fashion or committed murder move away immediately.”

“JT, don’t be a dick.” Dani scowled at him.

“Though he does have a point. Those are the things that tend to end up as a haunting,” Edrisa said, staring at the Mel-Meter.

“We’ve been in this house since the 1870s and on this land for almost two hundreds prior to that. My mother is never going to leave here,” Malcolm said, though sometimes he wished she would. When he’d been a child he had wanted to leave New York and the Whitly name far behind.

“Okay fair point, but I know what happens to the Black dude in every horror movie.” JT snorted. “It does _not_ end well.”

Edrisa wrinkled up her nose. “I’m not sure there are any Asians in American horror movies.”

“Good point,” Dani said. “Okay, I’ll play along. Is there anyone here who wants to talk to us? We’re very good at listening. Tell us your name, please.” She pointed at JT. “Go talk to him. He has something in his hand that can hear you.”

“Not funny, Powell,” JT said. 

Just then the Rem-Pod across the attic went off and they all jumped.

“Quick, Gil, take pictures over there!” Edrisa demanded.

“I’m taking them from right here,” he replied, doing just that.

Edrisa dragged Malcolm across the room and together they watched the Mel-Meter. Edrisa tapped the screen. “Look at the ATDD!”

“What is that?” Dani asked.

“Ambient Temperature Deviation Detection,” Edrisa replied.

Malcolm’s jaw dropped. “It’s actually ten degrees cooler over here suddenly.” 

“Are you getting this, Gil?” Edrisa asked.

“I am!”

The Rem-Pod went off again, and then spirit box said something that sounded like ‘Yes, Mrs. Mill.” JT ran to the other side of the room, furthest from the Rem-Pod.

“Oh, hell no!”

“Go ahead, talk to us. We can hear you,” Edrisa said.

Nothing else came through the spirit box and the Rem-Pod went silent.

“The temperature is warming back up,” Malcolm said, still stunned. He expected nothing more than to get a good case of the sneezes in the dusty attic.

Edrisa strode back over to JT. “Let’s play back the recorder, yours and the one on the spirit box.”

“How about we don’t,” JT countered.

“What are you so afraid of?” Dani snaked the recorder from him and reversed it. She hit play. They heard themselves talking and nothing else until Dani said, ‘tell us your name.’ A very distinct female voice said, “Emma.”

“Nope, this is…just nope!” JT shook his head, waving both arms like he was directing a plane to the jetway. 

JT’s ‘not funny, Powell’ was on the recorder and the Rem-Pod going off but on the recorder was something none of them had heard with their ears. A loud scream echoed out of the recorder.

“That is amazing!” Malcolm cried.

“I’m out!” JT made for the stairs, pelting down them.

Malcolm stood at the top stair and shouted after him, “Stay on the servants’ quarters level and wait for us. We can see if the dead maid is still there.”

“Hell no!” JT shouted back still on the stairs heading down.

“I thought you were stoic!” Malcolm chuckled.

“Bite me, Bright.”

“Go join Team Tally. Have Mother make you a cocktail.” He turned back to his friends, excited and a little unnerved by it all. At least he wasn’t bored or lonely. “So, that’s evidence for us.”

“Weirdest evidence I’ve ever collected,” Gil said, gathering up the spirit box for Edrisa.

Dani inched over to the Rem-Pod like something was going to jump out of the shadows and eat her. “Are we really going to go to the servants’ quarters?”

“Sure, why not? In for a penny in for a pound,” he replied.

They found no evidence of the auditory kind, however, on the servants’ level, which was stuffy and dusty too because his mother’s servants weren’t live-ins. It was mostly just for storage and the hanging of art too important to sell but too ugly for her to want on the walls where people might see. 

They went back downstairs where JT was, in fact, having a cocktail with Malcolm’s mother, and being ribbed pretty hard by Tally for abandoning them in the attic. 

“Why are you teasing me? You’re the one ready to run out of here like the house was one fire,” he huffed at his wife. “Besides, I keep telling you ghost hunting is mostly a crazy white dude thing.”

“There’s a show called Ghost Brothers,” Edrisa said. “But I suppose they’re the exception.”

“And in the horror movies, you know who goes first; any person of color, the couple having sex, the bimbo whether or not she’s having sex and anyone who’s drinking. The virgin is the only one to survive,” JT argued.

“I guess I’m dead.” Tally laughed ruefully.

“Several times over for me.” Jessica shook her head.

“Me too,” Dani said, looking at Bright and Edrisa.

“Don’t look at me,” he said.

“Yes, I know. You’ve had plenty of sex.” Dani smirked.

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” He sighed, vaguely remembering his snake venom-Ativan-bourbon induced proclamation. 

“Never.”

“I assumed that much about you when you knew the exact sort of bondage rope was used on our very first case,” Edrisa said. “It’s almost a shame that they hadn’t gone in for shibari, which is much more interesting that a mere tie down.”

“I know, right? Some of the patterns are downright pretty,” Malcolm agreed, enthusiastically.

Gil and his mother raised their eyebrows. “Really?” his mother asked.

“No one needs to know your and Edrisa’s bondage fantasies, Bright.” JT rubbed his forehead, and Malcolm’s mother saluted him with her cocktail. “Go work on that on your own time.”

“I know intricate patterns,” Edrisa assured him, completely missing Dani’s eye roll.

“Maybe another time. We were about to go out to the yard and try some EVP work out there by the old family plot,” Malcolm said.

“Malcolm, what are you telling people?” His mother sighed.

“What? It’s not true?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Did you just tell me and Ainsley that to keep us from ripping up the yard when we were kids?”

“No, it’s true but we don’t _tell_ people about it,” she said as if explaining it to a particularly slow chihuahua. 

“It’s fine.” He waved her off. “We want Team Tally to join us. You can sit on the back porch if you want, Tally.”

“I think I need to see my brave husband in action.” She grinned, and he glowered at her.

“What will the neighbors think, Malcolm?” his mother asked.

“That the crazy Whitlys are at it again?”

“I need another cocktail for this.” She wiggled her glass at him.

If it would get her involved in the hunt, he’d get her the cocktail. Gil refreshed his own drink, and JT had another of the beers Malcolm had bought with him in mind. The group trooped outside. His mother remained on the porch with Tally, and this time Gil stayed with her, surrendering the camera to Dani.

Malcolm led them to a large maple that still stood not far from the house. “I think they were around here. I’m not entirely sure. Seems a likely place to start.”

“Sounds good.” Edrisa set up the Rem-Pod there. 

“If a hand comes out of the ground, I’m gone,” JT promised.

“Your wife can’t run fast,” Dani reminded him.

“Team Tally can kick Gil into the ghost’s path, and after that she’s on her own,” JT replied.

“Thanks for nothing, babe,” Tally called merrily.

“I’ll remember that,” Gil added.

“Where should we put the spirit box, Edrisa?” Malcolm asked.

“Closer to the house, I think. Dani, you can take pictures of the house.”

“Sure.”

“And ask questions,” Malcolm said. “The woman in the attic responded to you.”

“Wait, what woman in the attic?” His mother popped off the porch and sashayed across the yard. “What are you talking about, Malcolm?”

“Emma. We got a recording of someone named Emma. Do you know an Emma?” He didn’t know of one himself but he hadn’t been as curious about the family history as maybe he should have been. He’d been more interested in the Whitlys or more specifically the fact that his father’s family seemed never to be mentioned.

“There was a great great aunt Emma,” she said wrinkling her nose. “Might have another great in there.”

“Really?” Dani widened her eyes.

“That is so cool.” Edrisa grinned.

“She didn’t get killed in this house, did she? We heard a scream on that recording too,” JT said.

“She died in childbirth if I’m remembering right,” his mother replied.

“That’s encouraging.” Tally shuddered. 

“We are so lucky to have modern medicine,” his mother said, returning to the porch. “Though out of this group, I’m probably the only one with experience unless Dr. Tanaka remembers any of it from school.”

“I could probably…have an anxiety attack but I remember,” Edrisa eyed Tally warily as if expected to need to leap into action any second.

“Gil has a fast car,” Malcolm said.

“Thanks for volunteering me, though of course, I’d do it without hesitation,” Gil said.

“Good to know but I’m fine.” She laughed. “Can I ask the ghosts some questions?”

“Sure, hand her the recorder, Malcolm. You can man the spirit box,” Edrisa said. “It’s a little less certain about the temperature on the Mel-Meter out here with wind and what not but it might still tell us something.”

“Good. I’m getting the pictures,” Dani said, but Malcolm noticed she was also getting snaps of them as well and why not? How often did they get a chance to hang out and have fun?

Tally held up the recorder close to her mouth. “Is there anyone here who’d like to talk? Any of the Miltons? I’m sitting right next to one your descendants here on the porch and another is out in the yard if you’d like to talk to them. Go ahead. This little box can hear you.”

“That’s right, babe, call the ghosts right over to you. Try not to get our baby possessed. I can’t keep that Milton spirit in the luxury it was used to.” JT laughed.

“Any other spirits here? Even if you’re not a Milton, you can talk to us. You can go talk to the tall dark and handsome over there by the tree.” Tally grinned.

“Not funny!”

Malcolm disagreed, accidentally saying the soft part loud. JT gave him the hairy eye. Nothing much happened . No words came over the spirit box and after some time, Malcolm turned to Edrisa and asked, “Want to go in and listen to the recorders and see if anything is there?”

“Sure, and we could hook the digital camera up to your TV and look at that evidence too,” she agreed.

“That could be exciting….or a just hundred photos of the attic and the back of the house.” Malcolm chuckled.

“Do you want to stay for this, Tally or are you tiring out?” JT asked.

“Oh, I can’t leave now. I want to hear if a ghost said something to me.”

They adjourned back to the game room, and Malcolm helped Edrisa get the camera wired into the Smart TV. 

“Let’s listen to the recording first,” she said, clicking on the one for the spirit box, which unfortunately mostly only recorded wind noises and the group talking.

Tally reversed the recorder. “Maybe this will be more exciting,” she said and hit play.

Her voice asking the spirits to speak and teasing JT were heard clearly. More wind noises disappointed Malcolm but then something caught his attention.

“Wind that back again, Tally,” he demanded.

She complied and the whole group leaned in, listening closely. Muffled but still audible was a child’s voice calling for his mommy. Tally nearly dropped the recorder. JT shook his head violently. Malcolm’s mother scooted closer to Gil who put an arm around her.

After the child, a man said, I’m coming and then a woman’s voice saying something that sounded suspiciously like ‘my dress.’ Malcolm swore he heard a horse and carriage clattering down a brick street. There were other strange mumbles that no one could make out.

Edrisa bounced on her seat. “This is amazing!”

“Not the word I’d have used,” JT grumbled.

“I’ll have to give this to my ghost hunting friends to enhance it. Oh…maybe not.” She pouted. “I wouldn’t want them constantly bothering me or you to come here. I’m sure you wouldn’t want that, Mrs. Whitly.”

“I can honestly say no, I wouldn’t. I mean, we were having fun. Anything more would be…” She made a face. “I’d just rather not.”

“Of course.” Edrisa eyed the recorder. “I bet I could do that in the lab myself.”

“I’d like to hear it if you try,” Malcolm said, surprising himself. He had only gone along with this in the beginning to keep his friends around because he’d been feeling so lonely. Now he was invested and a little nervous.

“Of course. Shall we try the video now?” Edrisa asked.

“No!” JT said but was immediately and unanimously out voted.

Malcolm cued up the pictures, starting in the attic. Gil had captured some decent pictures of the space and a great one of JT looking nervously at the Rem-Pod.

“If you were any more scared, my love, and you could be in an episode of Scooby Doo right along with Shaggy.” She grinned, bumping his shoulder.

“Just hand me a Scooby Snack,” he replied unashamedly.

“Wait, go back, Bright!” Dani said, waving at him. He complied, and she leaned forward, squinting at the screen. JT’s eyes were wide in the picture, staring at the recorder and next to him was a dark hazy thing.

“What the hell is that?” JT demanded to know, frantically pointing at the screen.

“A mist!” Edrisa clapped her hands together. “That is fantastic evidence.”

“Wow,” Malcolm took it in. “I was not expecting that.”

“You weren’t? I took the picture and I saw nothing around JT then.” Gil shuddered.

“I swear if anything follows me home from this, Edrisa….” JT eyed her.

Tally patted his knee. “If it does, you’ll be seeing her professionally.”

“You are of no help.” He put his arms around her, pulling Tally close so he could kiss her cheek.

“Look at this one,” Malcolm said, moving on to the next picture and the mist had taken on a more human shape.

“I’m never going in that attic again,” Gil muttered.

Malcolm clicked to the next two, which had Dani and the Rem-Pod in it surrounded by orbs of light that weren’t there the moment before. “Mom, I think your house is officially haunted.”

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation that doesn’t involve a Shirley Jackson novel.” She took a sip of her cocktail but Malcolm swore her hand shook just a little.

“I’m sure,” he humored her. He wasn’t one to believe in ghosts, not really but he knew what he had heard when the pictures went crazy.

Nothing more showed on the attic pictures and nothing at all in the servants’ quarters. He hurried past the candid shots of everyone in the back yard until he got to Tally and the recorder. She was surrounded by orbs in one shot but the shots before and after were completely clear. Edrisa got even more bouncy seeing them.

But everyone’s wisecracks and silliness went to silence when one of Dani’s wide shots of the house came up on the TV. Hazy vaguely humanoid shapes could be seen in several windows on multiple floors and more than one mist congealed over the grass.

“No, seriously, what the hell _is_ that?” JT turned to Edrisa. “Tell me that’s a camera glitch.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said in awe. “It could be a portal.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Dani shuddered, moving a little closer to Malcolm.

“It’s just a place where the veil between this life and the next is thin or so they say,” Edrisa replied.

“This house would be where there’s a portal,” Malcolm said, thinking more of the gates of hell in the _Amityville Horror,_ which he read way too young having found it on Jackie’s bookshelf. 

“Malcolm!” his mother reprimanded him.

“It’s true. Maybe the next time Gil’s at the Catholic church he should pick up some holy water,” Malcolm argued.

Gil leaned toward him, his brow furrowed. “Have you seen what happens to the guy with the holy water in those horror movies? I think not!”

“I think I’m going back to my loft tonight,” Malcolm said.

“You said you were staying here tonight.” His mother sounded sad, her eyes downcast.

“You have Gil to keep you safe.” He waved her off.

“I hear my cats calling my name and saying they need me home.” Gil smirked, and Malcolm’s mother shoved him.

“Not nice, Gil.”

“You could always come with,” Gil reminded her.

“I could.” She smiled.

“That is probably scarier to me than the ghosts.” Malcolm waved a hand to fend them off.

His mother pinioned him with a look. “Oh, really?”

“And on that note, I think it’s time we abandon Bright to his mother’s haunted house and her wrath. Thank you for having us over, Mrs. Whitly. It’s a night I won’t be forgetting,” JT said. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing that ghost army in my sleep.”

“It’ll still be less scary than what I usually see in my sleep.” Malcolm sighed.

“Your brain is your worst enemy,” JT agreed, helping Tally to her feet. 

“It was fun, Mrs. Whitly. We’ll have to return the favor some time,” Tally said.

“Thank you. Probably not any time soon but if you want a night to yourself once the baby comes, tell Malcolm, and I’ll send you an au pair for the evening,” his mother said.

Tally’s eyes widened. “Thank you! See, JT, it was worth the ghosts.”

“See if you agree when you’re floating five off the mattress tonight,” he said.

“If I feel weightless, I’ll take it.”

Malcolm saw them to the door. Dani went with them but not before saying, “It was one hell of an evening, Bright. We’ll have to do this again sometime.”

“It won’t be the same without JT. We’ll have to be sure Tally will spring him for the night, and Edrisa needs to bring a video camera.”

“I can hear you, Bright,” JT growled.

“And I can definitely bring the camera,” Edrisa said.

Malcolm helped her pack up all the equipment. Once his friends were gone, he went back inside with his mother and Gil. He’d promised her he’d stay so he should. “Well, Mother, what is your rational explanation for all the weirdness?”

“I’ll leave the science of it to you and your friend. I think I’m ready retire.” She shot Gil a look that made Malcolm wish he had gone home or at least had thought to invest in noise canceling headphones. “But if you really want to know about Emma and the rest, we do have family diaries in the library, dear.”

“I suppose I ought to read them some day,” he said but that would not be tonight.

“Have fun sleeping now that you stirred up all the ghosts.” Gil clapped him on the back and Malcolm gave him a dirty look. 

“Thanks.”

Gil pulled him into a one-armed hug. “That’s for the holy water crack.”

“I’m so sending the ghosts to haunt you and Mother.” Malcolm laughed.

He debated staying up a little longer since it was relatively early and he wasn’t particularly tired, which was unusual for him since he ran on next to no sleep most of the time. Instead, he did go to his room, which always felt haunted at the best of times, mostly by the specter of his father and all the love Malcolm had felt here growing up. 

Slipping under the covers with a book, he pretended not to be listening to hear ghosts in the attics, to the parade of spirits roaming these halls. Maybe his mother was right. There was a rational explanation for all the ‘evidence.’ Maybe the house was haunted. Regardless which it was, Malcolm jumped at shadows well into the night but for him, was that anything new?


End file.
